My brethren and sisters. I sincerely pray that

My brethren and sisters. I sincerely pray that the Lord will calm my spirit, and give me his Holy Spirit, so that I shall not say anything that will detract in any way from the splendid influence and spirit of this conference gathering. I am able to say that I am in perfect accord with the spirit and teachings of this conference. I am very grateful to the Lord that I have been permitted to meet with you and have again a birth of the spirit, and be renewed in my desires and determination to serve the Lord and keep his commandments, and enjoy his blessings. I feel full of thanksgiving and appreciation unto the Lord upon this occasion. ¶

It has been my blessed privilege to come with eight members of my family to enjoy this splendid occasion. Four years ago, this October, the mother and father and the children that are here upon this occasion were here to bid farewell to the oldest son of the family and wish him God speed upon his journey to New Zealand. We are here today to bid him welcome home from that field of labor. I hope you will pardon me for indulging in this kind of personal or family talk, but I stand before you as a father in Israel, one whose heart is full of thanksgiving, and I take it that it is fitting and proper that I should offer thanksgiving, even at this time, unto the Lord. The other night when that missionary boy crawled in bed with his father, the first time for four years and more, he said : ¶

"Father, it has been a long time, hasn't it?" ¶

"Yes," said I, "It has been a long time, son ; but, oh, how rapidly that time has gone and how grateful to the Lord, I have been every day, that he has permitted you to be out in his service. When I awoke in the morning I discovered that boy's head on my arm while he still slept, and thought if he could but know what a warm pulsation of this father's heart that is his, and how I lie here offering thanksgiving unto God for him, 0 how anxious he would be that he should never falter, never fall back, never lose that spirit and that sweetness which characterize him now. I have witnessed the return of our young ' men, whom we followed with faith and prayer to the field of battle, or wherever they have been during these past years of trouble and sorrow, war and bloodshed. I have seen some of them return, in many cases, thank God, pure and sweet and clean as they were when they left, having been so protected that they have not forgotten the teaching of the Church, of their fathers and mothers, and the influence that has sustained them. They have been mindful of their dependence upon the God of war as well as the God of peace, and the God of righteousness. When I have seen that kind of men come, back, and I have met many of them, O how my heart has rejoiced! ¶

But now, permit me to speak for a moment for some of them who, surrounded with temptations, were not able to stand. Perhaps, • when I speak of the conditions that obtain in the Deseret stake of Zion, it will be somewhat like the conditions that obtain in other stakes of Zion. Some of these boys have come back with the stain of tobacco upon their fingers. Some of them have come back regretting that they are not just as clean and sweet as they were when they went away. It is for this class that I would speak. O, what a lesson the Savior taught when he told us of the ninety-nine that were safely gathered and the one that was astray ; how he would go out and hunt for him who was astray, and when he found him, what rejoicing there would be! I plead for leniency for the boy, and bespeak for him the kind and tender care of the authorities of the Church. I say that it is the Lord that reaches out for men, and does not allow them to go back discouraged and feel that all is lost. I feel that it is from the devil when any spirit comes to a boy or a man, a girl or a woman, and they feel that they are lost, and that they cannot climb back into full recognition. ¶

How my heart did thrill this morning, in that Mutual Improvement meeting, when Brother B. F. Grant stated that he was the son of a prophet, a man who stood beside Brigham Young as a counselor, and his mother was one of the choice souls in the early days of the Church ; that for thirty-nine years of his life he got off wrong, and he continued to go wrong, believing that there was nothing in this gospel which the Lord God has restored in these the last days, until, stricken with sorrow, he looked upon the lifeless form of his little girl, his own flesh and blood, and then he said, "O God, can it be possible that this is the end, and that I shall see her no more?" To which the Spirit made reply, "It cannot be, this is not the end !" And then came into his life the day of repentance, the day of cleansing himself, purifying himself, the hours and the days of prayer. The Lord brought him back, until he stands now and bears a testimony of the Lord's wonderful goodness unto him ! ¶

So I say, I plead for those boys. I like the spirit that is exemplified in the parable of the prodigal son. I think when I read that parable sometimes that I can almost see and feel what it must have meant ¶

to that father to' have his son stand up before him and say, "O father." Perhaps he did not like everything that was going on in that family. Perhaps it was too slow, the boy thought, for him. Perhaps the boy was self-wise, and thought, "If you will but let me go and cut loose from the family, I would soon make good. If you will, father, divide unto me the portion that belongeth to me." I imagine that I can feel it. I feel that if such a circumstance should arise in my own family, I can imagine what sort of spirit and feelings would be in my own heart, when I would look upon my own flesh and blood, and I would be forced to say, "O son, after we have given all that we had unto our family, are you yet dissatisfied? Do you want to take the meagre portion that is yours and leave us and go ?" If he should say, "Yes, give it to me, father, and let me go." How would I feel if he would not repent, and he should go ? But I imagine that father watching, waiting, praying. Doesn't the Savior give us to understand in that parable outlining the very nature of things as they exist? Does he not say that the father saw the son approaching from afar? He was looking for the son that was away. He could not rest while there was one link of that family chain away. So he saw him as he approached from the distance, and he called them to go and kill the fatted calf, and he placed a mantle upon him, and a ring upon his finger, and he rejoiced. I think I can imagine in this world of selfishness, perhaps a little, what might be the feelings of a dutiful son who had witnessed that boy go off, who had witnessed the anguish of the father and the mother and the family. Now when he comes back that dutiful son hears the sound of rejoicing in the home. Calling to a servant, he asks, "What is this?" "O, your brother has returned, and your father and all are happy, and they are making merry." I think I can imagine what principle dominated the boy when he ""should say: "Is that so? And here I have been at home with father and mother, have toiled and labored this long time, and they have not so much as killed a kid for me ! And now when he comes home, after having wasted his money and all that he had in riotous living, here they are feasting with him !" ¶

Oh, but that father's heart burned, a true father's heart, and, he answered: "Son, thou hast been with me always; all that I have is thine; but this boy who was dead to us, this boy who was lost, he is back again." That is the spirit ; that is the lesson that I think we should have in our hearts now. Not one boy should be lost! I cannot conceive of the father that can say, he is gone ! I don't believe that such a mother exists who feels that they are gone, and that she will not get them back. ¶

The other day in your city, I walked up to an old man whom I saw out on the street and I tapped him on the back and said, "Brother Crackles, how are you ?" And he looked up and said, "Brother Hinckley, would you come out here in the street and speak to me?" "Why not, Brother Crackles ? Don't I know you ?" "Oh, yes, you know me, and I am working for an honest living." Then he said to me, "I have a message for you : Richard has come back to the Church, clean, pure, ¶

sweet and repentant." Then I recalled that I had heard him stand up in fast meeting, in his home ward, and bear a testimony something like this: After testifying of the goodness of the Lord unto him and his family, he broke down and said, "But one is gone, but he will come back ! Mother and I never retire but what we bend the knee, and ask the Father of all to bring Richard back to us, and he will come back !" I tell you that faith did not go unrewarded ; Richard has come back ! ¶

Let us take it to heart, my brethren and sisters, that the boy that would go and offer his life for you and for me and for the cause of liberty and right will not be lost, if you and I do our full part, for the Lord will reach out after him, and he will bring him back. ¶

Let us stand for that M. I A. slogan. Let the fathers and the mothers be at the sacramental table of the Lord. Let them renew their covenants before the Lord ; and let us remember, every one of us, the lessons of this conference that have been repeated over and over, that there is a law irrevocably decreed in the heavens, before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated, and whenever we receive any blessing from God it is by obedience unto the law upon which that blessing is predicated. Let us then so live that if we want the blessings of life, health and strength, as Elder Richard R. Lyman outlined to us this morning, we may be able to say unto the Lord, we have obeyed the law upon which this blessing is predicated. Let us upon the sacred Sabbath day be able to say to the Lord when we think of the blessings that are promised, predicated upon proper observance of the Sabbath day, and say it in humility, we have obeyed the law upon which these blessings are predicated. When we know what we get from prayer, let us be able to say unto the Lord, we have obeyed the law of prayer upon which the blessings that come from prayer are predicated. ¶

Do not count any boy or girl lost. They are not. Brother Talmage stated at our conference, a week ago today, as a servant of the Lord, and I wrote it down, and read it to him after the meeting was over and he said I had it recorded correctly: "I promise the Saints in the Deseret stake of Zion that if their lives are such that they can look their sons and daughters in the face, and if any of them have gone astray, that the parents are able to say, It is contrary to my instruction and my life's example ; it is against every effort of love, long suffering, faith, prayer and devotion that that boy or that girl has gone,' — I promise you, fathers and mothers, that not one of them shall be lost unless they have sinned away the power to repent." I don't believe any of our boys are in that lamentable condition. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I stand before you as one having a knowledge, a testimony, of the divinity of this great work of God. I stand before you like Brother Taylor, offering thanks unto God for the sainted and good father which I had, and mother also. I trust that when I have finished my work upon the earth I can reach out and grasp the hand of my father and can say unto him honestly: "Father, I have walked in the path that thou didst walk in, and the Lord has brought me home to thee." May it be thus with us, for our fathers and for ¶

ourselves and for our children and our children's children, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶